Transcript courtesy of @hotsteno (Missy Williams) who is a court stenographer in Morgan Hill and neighbor.
MAY 22, 2012 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
PRESS CONFERENCE
SGT. CARDOZA: Some important (indiscernible) here in the
room today. Obviously, Sheriff Laurie Smith will be speaking
in a couple minutes. She will make a statement. She will be
available for a couple questions afterwards.
We also want to acknowledge Christopher Carroll,
supervisor in charge of the United States Department of
Justice. FBI Jan Bennett, assistant supervisor in charge.
And Mr. Donald O'Keefe from the United States Marshal's
Office, Supervisor Wasserman of County Supervisors here as
well, as well as Jeff Thomas from our search and rescue team.
Sheriff Smith.
SHERIFF SMITH: Thank you. And thank you for being
patient with us. As you're aware, we did make an arrest last
night.
I'd like to start off by expressing condolences to
Sierra's family. It's a very difficult time for them. And on
behalf of all of law enforcement, all of the volunteers that
have been involved in this investigation -- they've been so
dedicated. They've worked very hard to come to this point.
After about two and a half months of continuous
investigation, with collaboration of all local agencies, state
agencies, federal agencies, we really would like to
acknowledge the United States Marshal that's here, the
supervising agent in charge from the FBI for their early
efforts and their commitment for personnel.
This has been very, very labor intensive. We've used a
lot of man hours, a lot of volunteer hours from our search and
rescue team. For that, we're grateful.
Our investigation has led to the identification of
Antolin Garcia-Torres as the person responsible for the kidnap
and murder of Sierra LaMar. We developed this through our
investigation based on direct and circumstantial evidence,
including forensic analysis conducted by the Santa Clara
County District Attorney's Crime Lab.
The discovery of Sierra's cell phone, her clothing, what
she wore that day, and her personal belongings have
contributed to our belief that -- that Sierra's a victim of
murder.
Early on, when our deputy first responded to a missing
child report, he knew immediately that this was not just a
runaway. This was something that was more significant. So
early in the investigation, we had tremendous resources out
there searching.
We found the bag of clothing less than two days after she
was reported missing. And our search and rescue team found
that two miles from her house. A two-mile radius is a huge
radius to search, and it was that clothing that was really
instrumental in identifying the subject.
Off of her property in the bag, we found DNA from Antolin
Garcia-Torres. It was that DNA that was placed into the
system that -- that revealed the identity. We received those
lab results on March 28th.
And from March 28th until present time, we've had
24-hour-a-day surveillance on Garcia. We needed additional
information. We were continuing the investigation. We were
hoping that he would lead us to where Sierra was. Our
surveillance efforts were -- were around the clock because
public safety was our primary concern.
We also have information that we've just recently
developed that there were three assaults in Morgan Hill about
three years ago, in March of 2009. We have linked one of
those to our suspect through forensic evidence. He was booked
last night for murder and kidnapping.
The family is here. We're not certain if the family will
come down and talk with you. I believe that they will, but
this is a very, very difficult time for them. And we just
really wish to express our deepest condolences to the family.
I'll take some questions.
A REPORTER: Laurie, what prompted the arrest?
SHERIFF SMITH: We had additional -- we got the initial
DNA from her property that we found two days after. That led
to the suspect. We seized the suspect's vehicle on -- on
April 7th, at the time we did search warrants. We have
physical evidence linking Sierra to his vehicle.
A REPORTER: Any possible motive why did the worlds
collide?
SHERIFF SMITH: We don't know that. It's my belief this
was purely random. It was an absolute stranger abduction.
There's no information that we have of any type that the two
know each other, have had any contact. We believe this is the
worst kind of a crime, a stranger abduction of a young girl.
A REPORTER: DNA found in that bag, what was it? On the
clothes in the bag, what was it?
SHERIFF SMITH: I'm not sure what item it was on. It was
found in multiple places on her property. And we're not going
to comment any more on -- on the type or the nature of the
DNA. But it was enough DNA to link him within the CODIS
system identifying him as the person.
A REPORTER: April 7th, the car, did you ever have
contact and interview him, and did he know he was under
surveillance and stayed in the area?
SHERIFF SMITH: I believe that he may have believed he
was under surveillance. We don't know that for sure. We've
talked to him multiple times. Last night after his arrest was
the first custodial environment interview that we've had with
him.
A REPORTER: Talk about that conversation. Has he
admitted to the crime? Is he going to take you to the body?
SHERIFF SMITH: We have gained some value from our
interviews with him, but nothing substantive. And we hope at
some point he does tell us more than he's telling us now.
A REPORTER: What makes you think she's dead? What gives
you that --
SHERIFF SMITH: Sierra was a very social girl. She had a
lot of friends. She communicated with her friends all the
time through social media outlets, through telephoning. From
the time that she was reported missing, there was absolutely
no contact. There has been no contact with any of her
friends. We have no reason to believe that she ran away. We
now have a stranger who we identified through DNA on her
property. Also, her property she threw away or discarded --
she did not throw away. Discarded was her property that she
would have taken -- that she would have taken with her,
including medication.
A REPORTER: Sheriff, do you know if he ever took the car
to the community searches for Sierra?
SHERIFF SMITH: I don't believe he did. But -- but I --
we haven't confirmed that.
A REPORTER: Can you tell us if there were any other
suspects to this person, anybody else knew or participated
in --
SHERIFF SMITH: Early in the investigation, we had many,
many suspects. We did additional surveillances other than
with him. Right now, we believe he's the only person
responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Sierra.
A REPORTER: (Indiscernible.) You said items were thrown
out. Is it possible he's got her somewhere stashed away
somewhere? Is it a possibility?
SHERIFF SMITH: We have a lot of direct evidence. We
have circumstantial evidence. We believe that the facts
that -- that I've just talked about lead us to believe this.
These are very, very difficult cases to prosecute, a
homicide when you have not found the victim, but it has been
done, and I think that we have adequate facts. In fact,
strong facts to believe that she has been murdered.
A REPORTER: I mean, is he a Morgan Hill resident?
SHERIFF SMITH: He is a Morgan Hill resident.
A REPORTER: Does he live in that neighborhood?
A REPORTER: He doesn't live that close in the
neighborhood, but he's familiar with the area. He's spent
most of his life, if not all of his life in that area, and he
is a resident.
A REPORTER: Does he have an alibi?
SHERIFF SMITH: Again, he has not been totally disclosive
with us in it, so we haven't had an opportunity to test any
alibi.
A REPORTER: With regards to (indiscernible) 2009, were
they sexual in nature, or were they physical assaults?
SHERIFF SMITH: They were physical assaults that were not
completed, if you will. And I know it's been widely reported
in the media. One was where a taser was involved but the
victim managed to get away. Another one was where the victim
had a knife that had been used against her. And the other one
was he was not able to get into the victim's car. She had
locked it. Those have been reported by the media, and one of
those we have linked through evidence to our suspect.
A REPORTER: Which one? Taser, the knife, or the --
SHERIFF SMITH: You know, I don't remember which one it
was.
A REPORTER: Did you locate blood in the vehicle that
matched Sierra LaMar?
SHERIFF SMITH: We have not located any blood. But we're
not commenting on -- on really any of the physical evidence.
We want that to remain confidential. Our focus right now is
continuing to search and look for Sierra. And we hope that we
have reached a successful prosecution on the person who did
this.
A REPORTER: Why was he in the database to begin with?
What had he done?
SHERIFF SMITH: He had -- he has a prior conviction for
interfering with an officer. That's a misdemeanor. He has a
prior felony arrest for an assault. That's what got him into
the database. But that was not prosecuted.
A REPORTER: If you believe that she is dead, do you have
any sense of how long she lived?
SHERIFF SMITH: We don't know that. We don't know that.
When we look at these types of cases -- and when I mentioned
and thanked the FBI for their assistance early on in the
investigation, we had their team of their child abduction
experts from all over the country come. We had their
Behavioral Analysis Unit from Quantico, Virginia, who talked a
lot to us about these types of cases, what to expect, and it's
based on their research of these kinds of cases.
And what we're finding now that we have a suspect, we're
finding that much of what they thought could have occurred
really is -- he's not a registered sex offender. That's one
thing that they told us right away. We were actually
surprised, because one of the first things that we did was to
look at all the registered sex offenders, and they said in
these cases, it's a very small percentage. So working with
them was really important in the beginning. And the
probability of homicide in this is also very, very strong for
these types of cases that have been studied and researched by
the FBI.
THE DEPUTY: Two more questions.
A REPORTER: I think a lot of people were concerned that
(indiscernible) found Sierra and -- do you have any weapon?
Or do you know how, if you believe she was killed, how she was
killed?
SHERIFF SMITH: We don't have a weapon, and we don't
know. We don't know.
A REPORTER: What made it important yesterday, as opposed
to the days or weeks before? Why did you make the decision --
SHERIFF SMITH: We had received the forensic evidence
back on the vehicle that we seized earlier. Lab takes a long
time. There are many, many more things that currently are
with the lab that we're expecting results. We knew that we
had probable cause and that we had a strong case to arrest him
for homicide and kidnapping.
And public safety was our primary concern. Even though
we have been surveilling him, surveillance is not perfect. We
wanted to make sure that this didn't happen again. And public
safety, again, has been our concern all along on this and to
make sure that we had a good, viable case.
A REPORTER: I think this is -- Sheriff, I want you to
address it now and have that opportunity. If you had him
under surveillance since March 20th, are you confident in the
way that you have handled this case in terms of disseminating
the information and protecting the case against the suspect,
but with all of the community volunteers and all of the
searches that have put so much into this? And you obviously
had a suspect early on, had evidence from the car early on.
SHERIFF SMITH: I'm absolutely confident in what we've
done. Our detectives have done an amazing job. The community
outreach has been wonderful. And we were communicating with
the community. The community in this has come together to
search for her.
What you have seen publicly has been our search: Our
search and rescue team, our sheriff's office searchers, or
underwater dive team. What you haven't seen, because it's not
as visible, is our bigger operation, the investigation,
surveillance. That's not as visible to you, so that's not
what you saw. But what the volunteers have been doing, what
our search and rescue team has been doing is searching for
Sierra, not investigating the case.
A REPORTER: One of the March incidents --
SHERIFF SMITH: I'm sorry?
A REPORTER: The felony arrests for assault, is that one
of the March incidents?
SHERIFF SMITH: No. Those were never solved. The three
assaults in Morgan Hill were not solved.
Let me mention one other thing that I think is very
interesting. Since January of 2011, so a little bit over a
year, in Santa Clara County alone, there are -- let me get the
number. Sorry. I guess I should have had this first. I
think there's 43 missing juvenile females reported since
January of 2011 that have never returned home. It's --
it's -- you wonder if any of those actually were abductions
also.
Our detectives have done a great job. Our investigators,
from the very beginning, our patrol people that initially went
to the call have done an extraordinary job. And we've put a
lot of resources into it, but these resources were important.
This is a missing little girl.
A REPORTER: What was the felony arrest for?
SHERIFF SMITH: It was an assault.
A REPORTER: Was that a sexual assault?
SHERIFF SMITH: No. And I know you've all met Sierra's
mother and Sierra's father. And I think Sierra's mother,
Marlene, would like to talk for a few moments.
MS. LAMAR: I would like to thank the community
outreaching to find Sierra, and all their time and efforts
that have gone into this and their prayers. We continue to
pray until she's found. Our search still is not going to end.
You know, as a mother, I still -- I'm hopeful, because
her -- her body has not been found, and that gives me hope.
And just what I've heard, you know, as far as certain things
not being found in the vehicle also gives me hope.
And I -- again, I am so grateful for the response, for
law enforcement.
I have a -- I do have a plea to the perpetrator to
please, please give the information that you have -- that you
have to lead us to Sierra, to help end this nightmare. I
would like you to come forward and say where she is and end
this nightmare for us as a family.
I'm not giving up hope, you know. Her body hasn't been
found. And, you know, so many people have -- you know, record
breaking numbers showed up at the search center, like,
thousands of people. And law enforcement, you know, doing it
simultaneously. I believe there's a reason why she wasn't
found. So I'm not -- we're not giving up on that.
MR. LAMAR: Good morning, everyone. I just want to say
just a couple of words.
The main thing would be that we want to thank, you know,
everyone for all of the support we've gotten. So far, we
still need your support. We need to bring Sierra home. So we
still need to find her. So we're looking for everyone to help
us do that. And -- and we're -- we want justice served. So
that's what we're looking for. Thank you.
SGT. CARDOZA: Okay. That concludes today's press
conference. Thank you.
Missy Williams ‏@hotsteno
Incidentally, feel free to cut & paste the transcript. My gift to the #findsierra faithful. #findsierralamar #justiceforsierra
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I think somehow the shed is related in all of this.
